That’s a pretty modest figure — especially compared to the kinds of numbers the same franchisee has been shopping in numerous media interviews over the past year. In fact, since last May, his prediction has gone down from more than $1/sandwich (about 20%) all the way down to just 4%.

1. A few days before final passage of the minimum wage law, Q13 reported:

“David Jones, who owns a Subway franchise, said a footlong sub may go up by more than a dollar.”

Local franchisee David Jones, who owns two Subway stores in Seattle, puts his cost of a $15 minimum at $125,000 annually. He pays the stores’ 18 employees $10.50 an hour, on average; he figures he’ll have to raise sandwich prices by a dollar or more to maintain profits.

He’s debating whether to raise prices on certain menu items or to impose a 4 percent surcharge on items across the board.

In less than a year, his projected price increase has gone down from $1+ per sandwich to a 4% increase — quite a drop. It’s a story in miniature of how threats and fears about minimum wage increases melt away into acceptance, and how the impacts are never what the sky-is-falling stories would suggest.

And that’s worth us all knowing for the future as workers keep on rising up for better pay in Bellevue, Tacoma, Aberdeen, Olympia, Kent, and across the state.

About Working Washington: Our mission is to build a powerful workers’ movement that can not only dramatically improve wages and working conditions, but can also change the local and national conversation about wealth, inequality, and the value of work. More info…

Our mission is to build a powerful workers’ movement that can not only dramatically improve wages and working conditions, but can also change the local and national conversation about wealth, inequality, and the value of work.

Working Washington fast food strikers sparked the fight that won Seattle's landmark $15 minimum wage. We drove Amazon to sever ties with right-wing lobby group ALEC and improve conditions in their sweatshop warehouses. And we helped lead the winning campaign in SeaTac for a $15 living wage.